Inspired by Roland Barthes' The Preparation of the Novel, this course intends to explore the first movements someone needs to make in order to start a movie project. Through wanderings, notations, drawings, rehearsals, and proposals, each student will prepare a range of materials to support their ideas in order to start shooting. There is no need for any previous knowledge related to movie-making since it is an introductory course. Neither is our goal to apply a method. Our task is to create a space for work where each student will find the tools to develop their own method in the direction of making a movie. We will also analyze movies that are related to our question and filmmakers' processes.

Required Readings:Aristotle. PoeticsBarthes, Roland. 2010. The Preparation of the Novel. Columbia University PressBresson, Robert. 1975. Notes on the Cinematographer. GallimardCalle, Sophie. 2015. Suite Vénitienne. Siglio Press.Kazan, Elia. 2009. Kazan on Directing. Penguin Random House.Kuleshov, Lev. 1974. The Rehearsal Method. In: Kuleshov on Film. University ofCalifornia Press.Kurosawa, Akira. 1981. Something Like an Autobiography. Berkeley UniversityPress.Lumet, Sidney. 1995. Making Movies. Alfred Knopf.Mamet, David. 1991. On Directing Film. Viking Press.Rodriguez, Robert. Rebel without a Crew. University Press of Mississipi.Movies (not required for class, but related to our course):The Cameramen (Buster Keaton, 1928)Amator (Krzystof Kieslowski, 1983)Passion (Jean-Luc Godard, 1982)Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)La Ricotta (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1963)Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)Barton Fink (Joel Coen, 1991)Caro Diario (Nanni Moretti, 1993)Eisenstein in Guanajuato (Peter Greenaway, 2015)Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)Schedule:Class 1:The viewer: The makerWhat are the differences between someone who loves cinema, as themember of an audience, and someone who decides to make a movie?Reading:Bresson, Robert. Notes on the Cinematographer. 1975. GallimardScreenings:Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008) [excerpts]Cinema Paradiso (Giusepe Tornatore, 1988) [excerpts]Class 2:Notation, wanderings: writing and walking as a research.For a moviemaker, walking around is a good way to find scenes, locations,dialogues and characters. But if walking is a great method to inspire,notation is an important resource to capture an idea. In Chekhov'sSeagull, for example, Trigorin - the well-known writer - is always carryinga notebook. In the end of Act II, while talking with Nina, he sees the deadseagull and writes down an idea for a short story.Readings:Barthes, Roland. 2010. The Preparation of the Novel. Columbia University Press[excerpts] pg: 90 - 93 and 245 - 257Benjamin, Walter. The Flaneur. In: The Arcades Project.Calle, Sophie. Suite Vénitienne. 2015. Siglio PressScreening:Lisbon Story (Wim Wenders, 1994)Class 3:The idea for the movie.Eureka! The idea captures you. Once you have an idea, you feel authorizedto start. There are many ways to start: a screenplay, research, rehearsals,an ambience. What matters is to find an efficient way to develop the idea,giving it a body.Reading:Aristotle. Poetics.Screening:Who's Camus Anyway (Mitsuo Yangimachi, 2005)Class 4: The first images: pictures, videos, drawings and storyboard.There are many ways to develop an imaginary for a movie. We willanalyse different strategies, such as the drawings made by Kurosawabefore the start of shooting or the graphics that Alain Resnais developedfor Last Year at Marienbad. We will also do some exercises to create thefirst images for our movies, discussing the process in class.Reading:Kurosawa, Akira. 1981. Something Like an Autobiography. Berkeley UniversityPress.Class 5: The projectThe project is the plan or the strategy to accomplish the idea for themovie. It is a document that should answer as many questions as possibleabout how to execute the idea. If written, it also can be a relevant materialto apply for grants or to find collaborators.How to write a project? Each student will write a project for their movies,inspired by the examples that will be shown in class.Class 6: CrisisYou don't have the equipment. You don't have money. You don't have acrew. You don't have a screenplay. You don't know how to start. You arenot sure about your idea.The crisis is a well known component in the process of making a movie.We will discuss different scenarios of crisis, how to overcome or accept it,as well as investigate cinemas that are created from it or are structured bya permanent state of crisis.Screening:8ó (Federico Fellini, 1963)Class 7: The locations, the actors.Wong Kar Wai says that first of all he finds the locations. Hong Sang Soolikes to get drunk with his actors before casting them for a movie.Auditions to find actors. Walkings to find locations. Between the actor andthe character, between the location and the scenario: the alchemy betweenthe fiction and the real conditions.Screening:Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977) [excerpts]Class 8: RehearsalsLev Kuleshov and the ideal space to rehearse a movie. Reharsing with thecrew. Rehearsing with actors. Digital era: rehearsing and shooting at thesame time.Reading:Kuleshov, Lev. 1974. The Rehearsal Method. In: Kuleshov on Film. University ofCalifornia Press.Screening: Salaam Cinema (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1995)Class 9: The crewCinema is a collective effort. We will discuss how to deal with a group ofpeople, taking in consideration the structured roles that each one needs toperform in order to shoot a movie, and also the politics of friendship thatneeds to be established for a smooth shooting routine.Reading:Rodriguez, Robert. Rebel without a Crew. University Press of Mississipi.Screening:The Monsters (Pedro Diógenes, Guto Parente, Luiz Pretti and RicardoPretti, 2011)​Class 10: Before shootingGodard often worked composing the day's script in a car on the way to theset, borrowing lines from a newspaper, the radio, or a book at hand, andeven whispering lines into the earpieces of his actors. This "open method"is also true for filmmakers like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who keepsthe process open until the last minute before shooting. Others, likeFrancis Ford Coppola, prefer to have everything planned (even thesmallest details). Each student will present for the class their plans for afirst day of shooting.Screening:La nuit américaine (François Truffaut, 1973)

Rodrigo Gratacós Brum is a Brazilian philosopher and filmmaker. He holds a MFA in Film, Video, New Media and Animation at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and a MA in Philosophy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is a member of Observatório-Móvel (observatoriomovel.com), an artist collective based in Florianópolis, and a member of Khôra, a research group on contemporary philosophy based in Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, he will be living in Cairo working on a documentary about the architect Hassan Fathi.